Giggity-gat! Can't Let the Terrorists Win (Again)

Yesterday I had the day from hell at work. Up against a deadline to get testing done against our 64 bit Oracle database, I had to do all of this in one day:

1. Resolve three separate technical issues in coordination with the system's vendor (not Oracle) by 3 PM to get a "go" decision at the "go-no go" decison point
2. Update the MS Project Plan governing the project
3. Update "Command Center" document (don't ask)
4. Meet twice with my upper management
5. Determine permission levels needed on two servers to be used in the production go-live
6. Go to Albemarle High School to get a form to allow my kids to attend Albemarle County Schools the coming up year

Everything got done, but I was left feeling drained by the end of it all. I ended up taking off from work at 4:30. There wasn't enough time to get anything else started or done, and I was really in no mood to try in any event.

I drove home, to Barboursville, and then immediately got changed into jeans, a t-shirt, and my fidel cap, gathered my SKS, loaded three 20 round clips, and then walked down to my brother's cottage to do some shooting.

He brought his AR-15 with two clips, and his .45 callibre Glock with two clips. We set up some targets against a hillside and proceeded to plunk away at them. God, to those who don't shoot, let me tell you something: There's nothing quite like shooting a powerful rifle repeatedly to drain away the day's stresses. Hippies can go ahead and insert phallic substitution joke here.

Whatever - it's really one of those subjects you can't intelligently comment on until you've tried it. Like parenthood or the military, you can read as much as you want about guns, gun ownership, and civil liberties but you can't truly know the subject until you yourself have done it. No ammount of reading will truly prepare you for parenthood or joining the military. In this case, you have to have owned a gun and shot it. Especially with rural gun ownership, there really is no debate in my mind about the nature of the civil liberty aspects or the essential goodness of it.

In short - suck it, hippies.

I'm also planning another expedition to the Rapidan Wildlife Management Area, this time on the weekend of 9-11. Possible attendees include me, my sister's boyfriend, a friend of his, my brother, and one to two friends of mine. In all likelihood we'll have to split up to not put too much pressure on the brook trout in any one stream.

Since the weekend is 9-11, I was thinking of getting a t-shirt custom made by my buddy Andy who runs the Black Cat Skate Shop in Charlottesville. They do custom t-shirts there. I was thinking of getting a Jack Kennedy graphic on the front, like this:

On the back of the shirt, it would say:

"Hey, terrorists! I banged all 72 of your 'virgins'...
Have fun with your Heavenly sloppy seconds."

Haha - because, you see - JFK is dead up there in Heaven with all of the virgins the martyrs are promised... ahhh, and ole Jack had a rep for being a ladies' man...

I think it's friggin' hi-larious.

Religulous

I went to see Religulous tonight, the new film by Bill Maher. We have this great old theatre here in town which has but a single screen. It's the only commercial venue in town where this sort of film is par for the course.

Do not let the reviews you may have read fool you about this flick. It is very much anti-religion. I say that as a matter of fact and without judgement for or against the movie - or religion, for that matter.

The basic gist of the movie is that anyone who approaches religious belief with certitude is a fool. Religion is foolish and dangerous. Dangerous because the apocalyptic fantasies that are at the core of so many religions are now possible due to man's recent grasp of apocalyptic technologies.

Technologies such as nuclear weapons which, along with pollution, are listed as some of the ways man's technologies could facilitate the apocalyptic fantasies contained within various scriptures. I would add biological and chemical weapons to that list of apocalypse-enablers.

Bill Maher says at one point, "The only thing worse than prophecy is a self-fulfilling prophecy."

To close the film, he sums it all up with, "Grow up or die." Meaning religious faith is immature and its foolish tenants can lead to our destruction given man's grasp of modern technology.

I am agnostic, myself. I don't claim to be wise enough to know what the answer is. I agree with the assertion that religious institutions are prone to corruption and have been so for centuries and millenia. Centuries and millenia of corruption have most likely lead to a perversion of the teachings of Christ, Muhammed, Moses, whoever.